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Ivanka Trump helped stop an anti-LGBTQ order before her dad could sign it: reports

U.S. President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner were key figures in an effort to stop an anti-LGBTQ draft executive order before it could be signed, reports said Friday.

The order described steps for overturning a 2014 decision by former president Barack Obama, that banned companies that worked with the federal government from engaging in discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, The New York Times reported.

READ MORE: Donald Trump to keep order barring discrimination against LGBT federal workers in place

But Ivanka, Kushner and others pushed back against the order, and Trump ultimately decided to keep the 2014 decision in place, unnamed sources told Politico.

The White House issued a statement about Trump’s decision on Tuesday.

“The executive order signed in 2014, which protects employees from anti-LGBTQ workplace discrimination while working for federal contractors, will remain intact at the direction of President Donald J. Trump,” the statement said.

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The draft executive order had circulated earlier this week before Ivanka and Kushner expressed a preference for releasing a statement, Politico reported.

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Gary Cohn, the president’s chief economic adviser, also expressed his opposition to the order, the Times added.

READ MORE: Donald Trump takes steps to roll back financial oversight laws

Trump was never exactly close to signing it — indeed, the order was never meant to be signed, White House officials told Politico.

But social conservatives close to the president have not given up hope that changes like those outlined in the draft order could still happen.

“I think they’re going to address the conflict that exists currently, which would preclude religious organizations from contracting with the federal government,” Family Research Council CEO Tony Perkins told the Times.

President Donald Trump listens as he is introduced during the National Prayer Breakfast, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017, in Washington.
President Donald Trump listens as he is introduced during the National Prayer Breakfast, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017, in Washington. AP Photo/Evan Vucci

This isn’t the first time that the U.S. president has gone public with his position on LGBTQ issues.

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In an interview with 60 Minutes in November, Trump said that the U.S. Supreme Court had already made same-sex marriage legal, and that he was “fine with that.”

“It’s irrelevant because it was already settled,” he said.

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